13 SEPTEMBER 1997, Page 30

Fire down below

TRANSLATE into French: 'So sorry to hear about your fire last week, old boy.' `Psst, you fool — it's next week.' This exer- cise for underwriters (`Je suis &sole, mon vieux copain. . . ') will help them to get business from Credit Lyonnais, Europe's unluckiest bank. After the fire that did such a thorough job on the head office, another fire has consumed a warehouse at Le Havre where the files were kept. Anybody who had hoped that these records would explain how the bank has got through £10 billion of public money must now fall back on con- ventional explanations, such as the French way of managing state industries. Its insur- ance claims must now be among Credit Lyonnais' best assets, which just goes to show what the worst ones are like.